More than one Dynamo player encouraged me to ask Chris Canetti if he still wanted to build a relationship with Monterrey after the very unfriendly friendly Sunday night at Robertson Stadium.

So, I asked him. The answer is a yes, a big yes.

The Dynamo had their largest crowd of the season Sunday night, and Robertson Stadium was rocking with the 28,440 in attendance, most of whom were dressed in Monterrey’s blue and white.

In my opinion, referee Jasen Anno was a major reason the Dynamo’s 3-0 victory got out of hand. Referee’s assistants Adam Garner and Greg Boles weren’t covered in glory either. As Brian Ching correctly pointed out, the game got out of hand after Monterrey’s Severo Meza was called for a penalty for fouling Luiz Camargo in the box. Once Brad Davis converted the penalty in the 23rd minute, Monterrey stopped playing soccer and began playing rugby. By halftime, Monterrey was playing two players down and trailing 2-0. Anno was consistently bad all evening, and you can argue he shouldn’t have called a penalty on the play. Six minutes later, Davis was on the ground and bleeding under his left eye after absorbing a vicious elbow from Monterrey captain Luis Ernesto Perez.

At this point in MLS’ development, the Dynamo aren’t likely to feel like the home teams in friendly matches against Monterrey, Chivas or Club America. But in 10, 15 or 20 years, they definitely will because no Monterrey fan could have left Saturday’s game without thinking the Dynamo were a pretty good team.

The Dynamo came to play, and they performed well against Monterrey, the defending CONCACAF club champion. Sure, Monterrey was missing six players who were on national team duty, but the Dynamo were missing four players as well.

“I think it was a compelling match,” Canetti said. “There was certainly a lot of energy and tension on the field. Those are the kinds of things that fans tend to gravitate to. Rivalries in sports are exciting and grab attention.”

It’s in the Dynamo’s best interest to build a rivalry against Monterrey because the Rayados put fans in the seats. Sure, it’s nice for the Dynamo to build a rivalry against FC Dallas, but only 16,709 showed up for that game. Some Dynamo fans had clamored for an English Premier League team, but only 13,612 showed up to watch the Dynamo face Bolton of the EPL.

So say what you want, but the Dynamo need a Mexican League rival like Monterrey to pack the stands. And in time, those fans will become Dynamo fans too. Maybe next year, though, a referee worthy of the crowd can show up to handle the Monterrey-Dynamo match at the new stadium, which surely will be sold out.

I leave you with this quote from Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear, which nicely sums up the spirit of the match:

“I think the players, when they saw the crowd, it ramped up the intensity. Some of the guys in the locker room were even saying ‘Hey, boys, if we keep this up we might get our first away win of the year.’ “